Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler believes his team can be the ones to derail Crawley’s title bid.

The Gills travel to the League 2 leaders, who haven’t lost in 15 games, on Boxing Day.

Hessenthaler’s men will hope to not only stall Crawley’s run but close the gap between themselves and the top.

"This game is a bit special because they are the team everyone wants to knock down," said Hessenthaler.

"They have the best home record in the league but we value ourselves and have a good squad of players.

"We will give them the respect they deserve but come kick-off, we’ll want to win the game.

"We need to make sure we work harder than them and show the quality that we have been over the last few weeks.

"We believe we can beat anyone on our day if we are on top of our game. It doesn’t matter whether they are in the top three or the bottom three."

Gillingham are boosted by an eight-game unbeaten run of their own and they need the win to close up the 11-point gap between themselves and Crawley.

Jack Payne is expected to be fit, despite missing some training with an ankle injury.